NEW YORK – The field of participants for the knockout round of the NBA Cup has been determined. And there will be a new champion and an almost completely different field than last year’s inaugural version.

When the dust settled on Tuesday night, the eight teams had been decided: the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic in the East; and the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks in the West.

Last year’s NBA Cup winners, the Los Angeles Lakers, were eliminated from the knockout rounds last week with losses to the Phoenix Suns and Thunder. And only two teams overall — the Bucks and the Knicks — out of the eight that advanced last year.

Therefore, next week’s quarterfinal matchups are the Magic at the Bucks and the Mavericks at the Thunder on Tuesday and the Hawks at the Knicks and the Warriors at the Rockets on Wednesday.

“Yeah, it’s great,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said of his team’s advance to the quarterfinals. “They gave us a tournament and we want to win it. We said that early on and we’re 4-0. But we still have a lot of work to do.”

There was still a lot to be won on Tuesday. The Hawks, Rockets and Warriors entered Tuesday’s quarterfinals as group winners, but the other five spots were still up for grabs, including two games in the East – Magic at Knicks, Bucks at Pistons – in which there was a straight “win” for them are at stake as they would determine the winners of Groups A and B respectively.

The drama in both games didn’t last long, as the Knicks and Bucks took sizable leads at halftime and kept going from there. The only thing up for debate at this point? Whether the Knicks could manage to knock Orlando, which came into Tuesday’s game with a huge lead of over 60 points, with a stunning victory to knock Orlando out of the quarterfinals altogether.

In fact, New York led by as many as 37 points in the third quarter – the number the Knicks needed to win to eliminate the Magic and allow the wild card Boston Celtics to advance to the quarterfinals instead. But Orlando eventually fought back in the fourth quarter and turned the game into a more respectable 121-106 Knicks victory.

“We deserved to get into the quarterfinals,” said Magic striker Franz Wagner. “Of course it’s not our best game today, but that’s why you played hard every minute in the other games.”

“Even after a game like that, it feels strange to move on, but it’s just part of the game.”

As a result, Orlando became a wild card and will face the top-seeded Bucks, while the Hawks and Trae Young – who advanced by beating Young-less Boston last month – will now travel to New York to play the Knicks, for Trips to Las Vegas are on the line for the winners.

In the West, both Houston and Golden State entered Tuesday knowing that all they had to do was win to secure their home spot, regardless of what happened elsewhere. But after the Warriors surrendered a 14-2 run against the Denver Nuggets to give Denver a 119-115 win and Domantas Sabonis had 27 points to lead the Sacramento Kings to a 120-111 victory over the Rockets, the opening opened up The door opens so that the Thunder become the top seed in the Western Conference thanks to their 133-106 win over the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City becomes the top seed due to the point difference becomes.

“That wasn’t the case at all until I knew we were going to win tonight,” Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander told reporters when asked if he had been following what was happening with the NBA Cup standings happened during the game on Tuesday. “I just asked around, but it’s all too confusing.

“I’ll just win and then we’ll see where we end up.”